The air screamed.
Not with noise. With data.
It folded in on itself, sharp as broken glass and coded like prayer. Yuuya could feel the Root Guardian's presence before it even breached full reality—a bloated thing of panel skin and fractal eyes, echoing like a system log run through a dying god's memory.
[WARNING: ROOT GUARDIAN ENGAGED - Anomaly Class Entity Detected]
[Overflow Energy Spike: Off-Chart Levels]
Linna flicked her fingers. Her light-chains pulsed like veins alive with code. Yuuya took a single breath and stepped forward.
"We hit it fast. We hit it before it stabilizes."
She nodded. "Before it decides we're worth rewriting."
---
The Guardian struck first.
The air itself lashed out—sharp, invisible waves that distorted memory. Yuuya activated Memory Lock, but the third wave clipped the edge of his recall buffer. He staggered. Forgot what he'd said three seconds ago.
[-13 HP]
[Status: Memory Drift Imminent - Stabilize in 20 seconds]
"Stay with me," Linna shouted.
Yuuya surged forward.
He activated Echo Shift, slipped past a rupture in the terrain, and struck hard at the center of the monster's chest. UI panels cracked. One showed his own death, projected on loop.
[True Learning: Overflow Mode Enabled]
[New Skill Formed: Timeline Fracture Lv. 1 - Temporarily render one enemy action invalid]
He triggered it.
The Guardian's massive blade-arm simply... missed. As if it had never existed. Yuuya capitalized, slamming into its leg joint with his reforged poker.
[Critical Hit - Mobility Node Compromised]
[Overflow Node Absorbed: 2/5]
Behind him, Linna sang.
Not literally. Her chains moved in rhythm, syncing to his heartbeat. She anchored the edges of the world with her light, forcing the dungeon to hold still. Even the system paused to consider her.
[Resonance Effect: Dimensional Compression Active]
[Boss Stats Temporarily Frozen for 10 Seconds]
Together, they unloaded.
He used Echo Break. She used Recursive Pulse. The Root Guardian howled in multiple languages, including ones that hadn't been invented.
But the thing wasn't done.
It exploded outward. The layers collapsed inward.
Yuuya fell through floor, memory, and code.
[Zone Shifted: Echo Layer ???]
[You are ALONE.]
---
Yuuya landed on a platform that didn't exist.
Above him: nothing. Below him: all his failures, looping.
The Guardian stood again, reshaped. Smaller now. Human-sized. It wore his face.
[Final Trial: Defeat the Self-Rewriting Entity]
[This Echo has your skills. Your stats. Your thoughts.]
Yuuya exhaled.
"Then it already lost."
They clashed.
Every strike was an echo. Every dodge, a loop.
But Yuuya had one thing the Echo didn't:
Growth.
[Skill Overclock: Echo Shift -> Echo Collapse Lv. 1]
He erased its movement. Deleted its attack from existence.
[Overflow Node Absorbed: 3/5]
It struck again with Ash Pulse. He responded with Shadow Counter, chained into Reflex Copy, launched back into Timeline Fracture.
[Overflow Node Absorbed: 4/5]
He could feel it unraveling.
And then—Linna arrived.
A beam of compressed light shattered the Echo's head.
[Overflow Node Absorbed: 5/5]
[ROOT GUARDIAN DEFEATED]
The world froze.
[NEW CLASS ACQUIRED: SYSTEMBREAKER]
[You are no longer bound by Diver Rank.]
[Bureau Override Immunity Granted]
[Overflow Tree - Anomaly Path Extended]
Yuuya stood on what remained of the dungeon's data.
"That it?" Linna asked.
He shook his head.
"No. That was just the start."
They walked forward. The air behind them collapsed into static.
Ahead of them?
Whatever came next.
---
Part II: Echo Convergence
Sector 0 didn't exist on any Bureau map.
It wasn't hidden.
It was deleted.
Wiped after the first Overflow breach ten years ago. Rumor said it had been an early experiment in dungeon-stitching, where spatial gates were fused together to create multi-node rifts.
Rumor was wrong.
It had been a prison.
And now it was opening again.
---
[Gate Appearing: BLACK_MIRROR://.ACCESS_CORE]
[WARNING: This event is classified under the Omega Directive. All unregistered participants will be executed on discovery.]
The Bureau scrambled.
Agents deployed.
Weapons charged.
But they were too slow.
Yuuya and Linna were already inside.
---
The gate didn't lead to a dungeon.
It led to a city. Or what used to be one.
Broken skyline. Melting code towers. Static rain falling sideways. Diver memories hung in the air like ghosts.
[Location: Omega Memory Layer - Echo Density Critical]
Here, even thoughts could kill.
Yuuya summoned his UI manually. The system refused to assist.
[SYSTEMBREAKER CLASS - FIELD EFFECT ENGAGED]
[Skill Compilation Loading...]
Linna cracked her neck.
"You feel it too?"
Yuuya nodded. "Something's watching us."
They weren't wrong.
Far above, in the broken sky, a shape stirred. Not a monster. Not a boss.
A diver.
[Name: Aran Vos | Rank: Deleted | Former Bureau Elite | Overflow Diver: Path of Consumption]
He fell like a comet.
---
The duel was instant.
Vos moved like gravity didn't exist. His blows drained energy. Skills flickered and died as he struck. Linna held him back with burning chains. Yuuya countered with Echo Collapse, forcing the field to reset.
[WARNING: Vos' presence corrupts skill memory. Skills may be disabled during contact.]
Yuuya dodged a blast that erased air itself.
Vos smirked. "You're not ready to be what you're becoming."
Yuuya grinned. "Then stop me."
He activated Timeline Fracture.
Again.
And again.
Until Vos froze mid-step.
Linna struck.
Chains through the chest. Echoes bursting outward.
Vos laughed as he died.
"More are coming."
And then he was gone.
[Echo Fragment Absorbed: 1/3 – Bureau Rogue Trace Identified]
[Systembreaker Tree – Branch Extension: Echo Rebellion]
---
Yuuya knelt.
The floor beneath him shimmered.
He felt it.
The system was breaking.
The world would follow.
He looked at Linna.
"You still with me?"
She nodded. "Lets continue."
He stood.
"Then let's see what happens when the system runs out of rules."